Capstone Project Step Three
This step of the project consisted of our group creating decision matrix and product life cycle research paper with an infographic. These tasks were important to help our group create a better focus on the details of our project. The decision matrix was a list of elements of our project, and each group mate went through the list and scored each element on a scale from 1-10, with 10 being most important and 0 least important. The purpose of the life cycle assessment was to get the general idea of the raw materials used in our product, how those materials are obtained, how we will install those components, maintenance need for our product, how we can recycle parts of our product, and emissions produced from our product. After this was completed, we created an infographic to compile the data from the life cycle assessment.
Concepts:
- Solar Panel: Solar panels use sunlight as a source of energy and generate direct current electricity
- Lithium Ion Battery: A powerful and effective way of storing large amounts of energy for extended periods
- Current: the flow of electricity in a circuit
Reflection: I have learned during this section of the project how to better work in a group and also what is required to successfully implement a microgrid. Our group has had our share of obstacles accompanying our project. These problems stem from the fact that we do not interact in person which makes communicating more difficult, and because we do not have the resources easily available to us to experiment with. Communication is definitely an issue we can improve on. Currently, we meet on zoom multiple times a week, and have a group chat to communicate when we are not in a meeting. During the meetings, we will often have trouble communicating due to technical issues, such as a slow connection or poor quality device that makes having a normal conversation difficult. When this occurs, we will problem solve and use the zoom chat or group chat to communicate with the person/people having these issues.